Safely destroying your sensitive documents will help prevent lawsuits, give you peace of mind, and protect your identity. But did you know that if you don’t do it in certain circumstances you would be breaking the law?
Circumstances Where Document Destruction and Retention is Required by Law
Medical
In 1996 the federal government passed the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) so that businesses have safeguards in place. If these rules are not followed you could face a hefty fine. – https://www.cdc.gov/phlp/publications/topic/hipaa.html
You can read more information about HIPAA here.
Sensitive Information on your Hard Drive
In 1984 the federal government passed the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA) regulating how businesses deal with sensitive data. Information that has been deleted from your hard drive can still be accessed using special software. The hard drive’s platters have to be destroyed to make the data on it unreadable in order for your data to be securely destroyed. – https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/criminal-ccips/legacy/2015/01/14/ccmanual.pdf
You can read more about the CFAA here.
Financial Documents
The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) was passed by the federal government to set up restrictions and guidelines in place that govern how financial institutions dispose of and handle their data. – https://www.ftc.gov/tips-advice/business-center/privacy-and-security/gramm-leach-bliley-act
You can read more about the GLBA here.
Legal Documents
32 states and Puerto Rico have laws in place that protect identifying information collected by law firms, other businesses, and government entities that have to follow a special guideline on how information is stored, how long you have to store it, and how to destroy documents in paper or digital form. The information stored on such files has to be made unreadable or undecipherable according to the National Conference of State Legislators. In New York, N.Y. Gen. Bus. Law § 399-H – https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/GBS/399-DDD
Regulation on How Long You Retain Information
In 2002 the Sarbanes-Oxley Act was created to govern businesses on how long they have to retain their records before you can shred them. If you have any questions you can contact Country Mile Document Destruction to find out if these restrictions apply to you and find out what the retention times are. – https://www.congress.gov/bill/107th-congress/house-bill/3763
You can read more about SOX here.
Businesses with Customer Data
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act (FACTA) is an amendment to the Fair Credit Report Act (FCRA). This amendment was added to protect the consumer from identity theft. The FACTA is a guideline on how to properly dispose of and protect your customers’ sensitive or personal data such as account numbers, social security numbers, etc. – https://www.ftc.gov/enforcement/statutes/fair-accurate-credit-transactions-act-2003
You can read more about FACTA here.
Residential Dumpster Diving
The Wisconsin legislature, on February 1st, 2000 enacted section 895.505 (Dumpster Diving Law) of the Wisconsin Statutes which could hold businesses and others civilly and criminally liable for not disposing of, or using “personal information” in accordance with the new law. – https://docs.legis.wisconsin.gov/2001/statutes/statutes/895/505/1/b
Did you know that if a person places their garbage on the curb off of their property it is legal for anyone to take it? Private detectives obtain information for their clients in this manner.
Why a Paper Shredder is Not Enough
A paper shredder makes the documents almost impossible for a person to piece together if there are enough pages shredded. A cross-cut paper shredder makes it even harder for a person to piece together the document like a jigsaw puzzle.
But did you know there is software and equipment out there that all you have to do is feed the pieces into a machine and the computer will sort it for you? That’s right, the computer can tell you what the document reads in a very small fraction of the time that it can be done manually, and shredding a document in this way is NOT in accordance with the law. Even confetti-like-sized pieces can be deciphered.
Did you know that you can buy software to do this yourself at home? An Israeli company sells software that can turn any PC and scanner into an “unshredder.”
That is our little blurb for today. I hope you enjoy the rest of your week!
Country Mile Document Destruction is NAID Certified. What Does That Mean?
Being NAID Certified (https://naidonline.org/certifications/) is a guarantee that you are protected by law and that your documents are destroyed in the proper manner. Not only that but Country Mile Document Destruction destroys the documents right there on the spot with one of its many mobile destruction trucks.
The documents are not only shredded but reduced to a pulp that turns it into ‘mush’ that is then recycled.
You can contact Country Mile Document Destruction to properly and legally destroy your documents for you. You can contact them using the following Information.
Ann Younk of Country Mile Document Destruction
Phone: (906) 753-9905
Email: Info@cmdocdestruct.com
Website: https://cmdocdestruction.com/
Call Us Today!
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